


The Properties of Dragonfire

by Bythia



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: M/M, One sentence prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 09:55:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23349538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bythia/pseuds/Bythia
Summary: While fleeing from Smaug’s fire, Bilbo loses the ring he found in the goblin cave. No one could have foreseen what happens next. Bilbo really does not think he can be held accountable for the dragon's death!
Relationships: pre Bilbo Baggins/Thorin Oakenshield
Comments: 6
Kudos: 308
Collections: Suggested Good Reads





	The Properties of Dragonfire

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Deutsch available: [Die Eigenschaften von Drachenfeuer](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24251263) by [Bythia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bythia/pseuds/Bythia)



> I have listened to and enjoyed a lot of Keira Marcos’ podcasts in the last few weeks. At the end of the episode “The Subtle Fuck You”, Jilly and Keira talked about possibilities for a subtle “fuck you” in the The Hobbit and barely an hour later I was lying in bed while this little story was spinning in my head.
> 
> Later, in the process of writing it down, I remembered their “One Sentence Prompts” and that this story would fit one of them, too. Thank you, Ladies, for sharing your thoughts and inspiration!
> 
>  **The Prompt:** “Bilbo Baggins accidentally kills Smaug and has to figure out how to go tell the dwarrow who war waiting for him to come back with that stupid stone.”
> 
>  **Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters or anything of this world. I just borrowed them to play a little bit, and I don't make money with the stories I borrowed them for. But the words are mine, so please don't copy them to use them as your own.

Bilbo ran as fast as his feet would carry him on the moving gold coins, jewels and other treasures. He had never before seen a dragon, but that wasn’t necessary to know what it meant, when Smaug raised up on his hind legs, chest glowing and the air filling with a deep rumbling.

“I can smell you, little thief”, the dragon growled and Bilbo stumbled about a chandelier longer than he was himself.

The edge of a jewel dug deep into his hand, as he tried to catch his fall and for a long moment he rummaged with his hands trough the gold, not finding any leverage to stand up. He was more crawling than running, while he desperately tried to just move forward. Bilbo knew if he stopped he would be dead. Death by dragonfire would not be his end!

“And now, I can see you!”, Smaug boasted.

Bilbo had no time to comprehend those words as he stumbled behind a stone pillar just seconds before the whole room resonated under a high hissing sound, and then deep red flames encircled him, passing the pillar to his left and right and meeting just a few feet in front of him. The stone in his back shielded him from the fire itself but not from the heat. Bilbo was desperately holding his breath, hoping he could outlast the dragon. To his left, where he had come from, appeared a bright white glowing and over the roaming of the flames rose a deep drumming sound, that filled Bilbo with more dread and fear than the dragonfire.

It seemed to be an eternity had passed before the fire died quite abruptly. The heat died nearly instantly with it and Bilbo took a deep breath, before he started to run again. He needed to reach the passage he had come through and close the door before the next wave of fire would come. He had no time to look for the dragon or wonder over the odd light and drumming. He didn’t even have time to register that the gold around him hadn’t been touched by the fire and was actually quite cold as his feet carried him over it.

“You can’t hide from me! You won’t escape my wraith or fire, little mice!” Smaug hissed somewhere behind him.

Bilbo ignored him. He had his eyes set on the small, narrow door, that would hopefully grand him safety from the fire. He heard the rumbling that had announced the last wave of fire and for a few long moments he feared he wouldn’t be fast enough. But this time Smaug needed a precious few seconds longer to gather his fire and Bilbo reached the passage as the high hissing heralded the nearing fire. He threw himself against the lever inside the corridor. The flames licked against Bilbo’s back for just a moment, before the door shut between the Hobbit and the inferno.

Bilbo let go of the lever and stumbled to his knees, where he sat for a long moment, quivering and gasping for air and not quite believing that he had escaped the dragon’s fire with just slightly scorched clothes and hair and a deep cut in his palm. It was dark in the passage and he had no idea where his torch was, so he moved trembling fingers over the palm. It was slick from blood but the cut didn’t seem overly deep and he hadn’t lost any feeling in the palm or the fingers.

But then his breath caught: he wasn’t wearing the ring any more. When he had tripped and fallen, Smaug had seen him. The ring had to have slipped from his finger as he had stumbled back to his feet and Bilbo hadn’t even registered the visual change of his surroundings, to caught up in his panic and fear. Bilbo’s thoughts about his lost ring were disturbed, as the stone under his knees began to shake violently, followed by an overwhelming blast, that threw him trough the passage.

When his head hit the stone floor he was encompassed by darkness.

  
  


His head and his hand hurt when he woke up and for a long moment before he opened his eyes, he couldn’t remember what had happened. It was not the first time since Bilbo left the Shire that he woke to a world full of hurt and at first he didn’t even wonder about how it had come to be, while taking stock of his injuries and taking in the bed of furs he was lying in, that indicated they had to be somewhere relatively safe and the dwarrows intended to stay for a little while. When he opened his eyes and saw the hewn stone above his head, he remembered how they had arrived at Erebor and how he had gone down to meet the dragon and nearly got roasted by his fire.

“You are finally awake, burglar.” Thorin was sitting beside his bed and staring at him with an odd emotion in his eyes, that Bilbo couldn’t place.

“What happened?”, Bilbo asked confused.

“I had hoped you would answer this question. I send you down to take the Arkenstone out of Smaug’s claws and instead you somehow managed to kill the dragon.”

Bilbo stared uncomprehending at him. “I did what?”

“You don’t remember that you went down into the mountain?”, Thorin asked concerned.

“Oh, that part I remember just fine”, Bilbo answered darkly. “And I remember nearly getting burned by the damn beast. But I didn’t do anything to kill it. I was barely lucky enough to get the door closed before the fire reached me.”

“You have to have done something, though”, Thorin contemplated. “There was an earthquake and an explosion.” He hesitated slightly. “I shouldn’t have sent you down here alone. I was…”

“Irrationally and rash?”, Bilbo suggested in the upcoming silence.

Thorin inclined his head. “Probably. We found you unconscious a few feet from the door to the treasury. And inside the treasury we found the carcass of the dragon. Whatever you used for this explosion, it drove several gemstones inside the lesser protected parts of his body and deep into his flesh.”

“There are lesser protected parts in a dragons hide?”, Bilbo asked sceptically.

“His eyes and the inside of his mouth”, Thorin explained. “And legend says there is an unprotected part on his belly where he lost part of his scales. We will certainly see the truth of that when we get through the gold that’s molten around him.”

“Molten gold?” Bilbo wondered what had happened in this hall after he left it. The dragonfire hadn’t even heated up the gold but Bilbo couldn’t think of anything else that could have caused an explosion.

“A lot of the treasures on the surface were molten and there is a lot of damage to the stone. But we are fairly sure the structural integrity is intact, so we won’t have to fear the ceiling coming down on our heads while working in there.” Thorin tilted his head to the side. “Tell me what happened, Bilbo.”

The Hobbit shook his head. “I really have no idea what happened with the dragon, you know? When I came into the treasury I couldn’t see Smaug at first, because he was buried under the gold. And I knew instantly, that I had no chance to find your jewel. You were in there! The thing could be buried at the very bottom of this mountain of gold. And really, you have to had known how big this horde would be, how did you imagine anyone of us could find one specific stone in there? - Anyway, I went down, woke the dragon, ran for my life and was nearly killed. Nothings that’s not happened every fortnight or so on this journey.”

“The Arkenstone is shattered, probably due to the explosion”, Thorin said solemnly.

Bilbo raised his eyebrows. “Really, that’s what you took out of my … rant?”

Thorin shrugged. “You seem concerned about us not being able to find it. The shards lay near a wall on the other side of the hall from where the secrete passage leads. - Did anyone during our journey tell you about the sickness my family is suffering from?”

“I have heard mention of a goldsickness, but I have no idea what that is”, Bilbo confessed.

Thorin nodded. “Some people say the line of Durin was cursed many generations ago. I didn’t … want to belief that, even after I had seen my grandfather and father suffer under it and making others suffer for it. I believed myself above such … madness. In retrospect I can see my mistake in this assumption. I was suffering under the call of the gold probably for most of the time you have known me.”

“And you think you aren’t any more?”, Bilbo asked when the dwarf hesitated.

“You know how it feels when you are thrown in a freezing cold river in the middle of the winter?”, Thorin wanted to know.

“No, actually I don’t!” Bilbo huffed. “I can’t swim. If anyone had ever thrown me in a river, I wouldn’t have lived to tell the tale!”

Thorin straightened up looking alarmed. “What? It was your idea to flee with the barrels over the river! How did you think that was a good idea if you can’t swim?”

“Do you really want to talk about that?” Bilbo sat up, even though it made his head spin. He wasn’t having any kind of discussion with Thorin while lying down. “It wasn’t as if there had been a better idea to get you out of those dungeons! You baiting Thranduil wasn’t helping in any way, you know? I witnessed those … those temper tantrums between the two of you. It was ridiculous!”

“He let my people starve and freeze!” Thorin was vibration with apparent fury. “Do you know how many dwarrows died because he wouldn’t even let us use the path trough his kingdom, let alone give us shelter or just help in healing our wounded? And it wasn’t just us! He didn’t help the men of Dale either. He is just lucky that humans have a short life and therefore short memories, too.”

“I wouldn’t ever dismiss those things, Thorin”, Bilbo said a little calmer. “But you were not in a position where you had any control or power. What would have been the problem in just promising him those jewels he asked for?”

Thorin crossed his arms and send him a dark look. “It would open the door for him to ask for more and more out of this mountain!”

“But you are not really here for the treasure. You are here because you want to reclaim the home of your people, are you not?”, Bilbo asked gently.

“I am”, Thorin agreed readily. “But not every dwarrow in our company came here just because it is our home. And to rebuild this kingdom we will need a lot of funds.”

Bilbo took a deep sigh. “Okay. That situation is done and dealt with and we all lived.”

“Barley”, Thorin muttered darkly. “Kili was healed by this redheaded elf he was flirting with of all things while they kept us prisoners. They arrived a few hours ago, without this elf thankfully. I have no idea how I would tell my sister that her youngest son has taken of with one of those tree-shaggers!”

Bilbo snorted. “Your sister and you will just have to live with it!” But then he frowned. “How long exactly was I out?”

“A little more than a day”, Thorin answered. “You must have hit your head pretty hard. - I’m glad you weren’t hurt more seriously. I’ve been … worried.”

“My head isn’t as sturdy as yours”, Bilbo reminded. “You wanted to tell me something about this goldsickness, I think, before you came up with this ridiculous metaphor about being thrown into a river!”

“Right.” Thorin raised an eyebrow. “It wasn’t ridiculous, it was quite accurate to when the thrall of the gold let go of me, just a moment before we heard and felt the explosion. Balin, Dwalin and Gloin all felt it to a lesser degree, and Fili and Kili apparently did, too. We think it was the Arkenstone that was bearing the curse and it vanished when the stone was destroyed.”

Bilbo frowned, remembering how Thorin had said the curse had influenced his family for a very long time. “Didn’t Balin say the stone was found while your grandfather was king? That aren’t so many generations.”

Thorin shook his head. “It was found in the mines under Erebor. Who knows how long it lay under our kingdom and was influencing the line of Durin. What ever you did to cause this explosion it was a great service two times over, for me, my family and all of my folk.”

Bilbo shook his head more vehemently than his head could really take. “But it wasn’t me!”

“You were the only thing that wasn’t already in this mountain for many decades when the explosion happened.”

Bilbo ignored being called a thing for the time being. “Could it be that the dragonfire damaged the Arkenstone? Could that be the reason for the explosion?”

Thorin shook his head. “No. The shards aren’t even near the centre of the explosion. The explosion occurred very near to the secret passage.”

Bilbo frowned. “What would dragonfire do to a magical ring?”

“Magical ring?”, Thorin asked clearly confused.

“I … when I was separated from you in the goblin cave, I found a ring. When I wore it, it would make me invisible. I used it, so Smaug wouldn’t see me. Not that it was in any way helpful, he just smelled me instead. When I ran from him I fell and I must have lost the ring there.” Bilbo continued to tell about the white light inside the fire he had seen and the weird drumming sound.

Thorin frowned. “I have no experience with magical rings. But the few legends I know all say that special requirements are needed to destroy one of those rings. If dragonfire would fulfil those I couldn’t say. Maybe the wizard could answer this question. If he ever gets to Erebor! - This ring, you used it to evade the elves?”

“I did”, Bilbo confirmed. “And to hide from the spiders in the wood. That was nearly as ineffective as to use it against being detected by Smaug, though.”

“A helpful little trinket. And yet you never told us of it.”

Bilbo shrugged. “It never seemed important.”

Thorin raised his eyebrows. “It seems most important now.”

  
  


Three days went by in which no one disturbed the company. Kili, Fili, Bofur and Oin, who had been in Laketown at the time Bilbo’s meeting with Smaug had led to the dragon’s death, reported that the earthquake had shaken up the town on the water, too, but there had been just minor damaged. The four dwarrows had taken of to Erebor as fast as they could, fearing for the life of their comrades.

None of the dwarrows gave any attention to Bilbo’s protests that he wasn’t responsible for Smaug’s death. At the first meal after he had regained consciousness one of them had started to call him Bilbo ‘Dragonslayer’ and it had stuck. Bilbo wished he had paid attention and knew who to curse for it, he really didn’t care for this title, especially as it just wasn’t true in his mind.

There was a lot to do for all of them. It started with dire preparations for the winter, that was nearing with alarming speed. They would need a lot more food and wood than they had and it wouldn’t be easy to organise any. They may have enough gold to buy plenty, but the man of Laketown couldn’t spare much and no one even contemplated to ask the elves of Mirkwood.

Additionally all dwarrows had aired their apprehension about interlopers coming to claim part of the mountain or the gold in it, be it humans, elves or orcs, or even other dwarrows. No one was entirely sure if their flight with the eagles had Azog thrown of their trail entirely. He could and would probably guess that Erebor had been their destination.

Besides those concerns their biggest problem was the carcass of the dragon. No one wanted to let it rot inside the mountain, but to get it out of the halls seemed impossible at first. It took a few hours to decide that they would dissect it, keep the hide and the bones, because both could be used to create various things, and burn everything else outside. For one tiny moment they even discussed to keep the meat to increase their food supplies, but in the end no one could imagine to eat the dragon.

On the forth day after Bilbo had woken with Thorin sitting beside his bed, Gandalf arrived at Erebor. He was clearly astonished about the lack of destruction in the wake of Smaugs death, but pleased never the less that the dragon was dealt with. Bilbo had wondered in the last few days, what the wizard had planed, as surly he couldn’t have expected a company of thirteen dwarrows and one Hobbit to conquer a dragon. Especially as said dragon had driven a whole army of dwarrows out of their kingdom. But Bilbo suspected he would never get an answer to this question, now that the situation was dealt with.

Only a few hours after the wizard’s arrival Bilbo found himself on the plateau where they had found the entrance to the secret passage, sitting beside Thorin while Gandalf stood at the edge looking out over the land that extended between Erebor and the Long Lake.

“You wont have to worry about orcs, Thorin. They seem to have lost their … direction”, Gandalf said. “There was an army led by Azog the Defiler on its way to Erebor. But it broke up a few days ago.”

Thorin frowned. “How did this happen?”

“I fear, I do not know.” Gandalf sighed. “Maybe … I met with Radagast, Elrond, Galadriel and Saruman in Dol Guldur. We vanished … something very dark. Maybe this thing had a strong enough hold over the orcs to direct them in this army. They aren’t known to join in such large groups without an outside force.”

“And Azog?”, Thorin asked.

“Him you shouldn’t dismiss until you know he is dead. But with only a handful of orcs and wargs with him, he doesn’t pose the same threat as before”, Gandalf said.

Bilbo let his gaze wander to Mirkwood. “What about Thranduil? Will he come and demand reparations?”

Thorin scoffed. “Reparations for what?”

“For whatever he deems necessary.” Bilbo rolled his eyes. “He asked for some stones while we hadn’t even reached Erebor, let alone reclaimed it!”

Gandalf shook his head. “No one knows that the dragon is dead, neither the elves of Mirkwood nor the humans of Laketown. With a little bit of skill, you will have enough time to wait for reinforcement and to get a little bit rebuilding done, before you have to worry about your neighbours. - As for Smaug, how exactly did you manage to kill him?”

Thorin smirked. “It seems, you didn’t hire us a burglar but a Dragonslayer.”

Bilbo flustered, but once more he told the tale of his encounter with Smaug and repeated his insistence that he was in no way responsible for the beast’s death. With a little hesitation and prodding from Thorin he told of the ring he had found in the goblin cave, how he tried to use it to hide from Smaug, and how he must have lost it while running for his live in the treasury. And he repeated his question about the dragonfire and the ring and the scant things Thorin had been able to say about it.

“Thorin is right.” Gandalf was twisting his stave between his fingers. “Magical rings aren’t easily destroyed. Most of them would need the fire they were forged in to even damage them. But dragonfire is magic in it’s own right.”

“So you think it possible, that the destruction of the ring caused the explosion?”, Thorin asked.

“It seems the most logical conclusion.” Gandalf turned to them. “You said the most destruction occurred roughly in the area where you lost the ring?”

Bilbo nodded. “As far as I can tell.”

“Tell me more about this ring. What did it look like? What did it feel like?” As Gandalf asked those questions he regarded Bilbo with a gaze that made him really uncomfortable.

“It was just a plain ring.” Bilbo shrugged helplessly. “A gold band, no stones, nothing engraved. And … it was cold. I mean, not the metal itself. But … when I was wearing it, I felt kind oft … detached from the world.”

“And yet you used it readily on more than one occasion?”, Gandalf asked. “And you never talked about it. Why did you keep it a secret?”

“I don’t know. It wasn’t … I never decided to not tell you or the dwarrows about it. It just never came up!”

“That’s not entirely true.” Thorin was frowning at him. “The night we spent in Laketown I asked you, how you had avoided detection by the elves. You told me it was a trade of your kind to went by unseen.”

“It is”, insisted Bilbo. “How many other Hobbits did you see in the Shire? I assure you, you were seen by hundreds. And I bet you only saw a handful.”

“But that was not what you used to get us out of Thranduil’s dungeon.” Thorin crossed his arms in front of his chest and regarded Bilbo with a dark look. “You lied to keep the ring hidden.”

Bilbo frowned. “No, I just … I don’t know. It didn’t feel … right to talk about it.” He remembered, that he had thought about discussing the ring with Gandalf while they had been in Beorn’s garden, but he couldn’t remember why he hadn’t done it. Something had made him hesitate and then the moment had been gone.

“Some magical artefacts don’t want to be discovered”, Gandalf said quietly. “But those that want to be hidden are often very dark objects. - If you had asked me a few days ago, I wouldn’t have thought it possible for dragonfire to damage a magical ring. On the other hand, there isn’t much known about dragonfire. … I don’t think there was ever anyone, who had the possibility to experiment with its properties. - Or if there was, no knowledge or documentation has survived the centuries.”

Bilbo was nodding and smiling. “So basically, Smaug killed himself! I had nothing to do with it!”

Gandalf raised his eyebrows. “Smaug’s fire probably destroyed the ring and the backlash killed him. But if it weren’t for you, my friend, the ring wouldn’t have been there to begin with. And that means your new name isn’t as unfounded as you are insisting!”

Bilbo huffed irritated. “I have a perfectly fine name! I don’t need this new one! Do you have any idea how the others in the Shire are going to react if I come back with this ridiculous name?”

“You could just stay here.”

Bilbo looked sharply at Thorin. “What?”

“If you are dreading the reaction of your kin, no one forces you to go back”, Thorin said. “You have more than earned your place in Erebor.”

“I… I… don’t be ridiculous, Thorin!” Bilbo shook his head.

Gandalf was smirking in the direction of the dwarf. “There will be the whole winter to convince Bilbo to stay. But Hobbits live of gossip. You will have to find another reason than for your burglar – or should I say Dragonslayer? - to evade the gossip of his kin.”

Bilbo frowned. “What are you talking about?”

He had no idea how the wizard got it in his head that Thorin’s suggestion was sincere. Thorin thought himself indebted to Bilbo, because of Smaug’s death and the destruction of the Arkenstone, but that was all. Bilbo was positive Thorin would tire of his presence long before the winter would near its end. There had been moments on their journey when Bilbo had felt the potential of a deep connection between himself and the sour dwarf, but they had never lingered, regardless of how much he had wished they would.

Thorin nodded to Gandalf. “I will use my time I have wisely.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Still new to writing in English. If there were any blatant mistakes in grammar or words used awkwardly/wrong, feel free to help me learn do better. (I don’t mean typos etc., just things that really destroy the reading flow.)


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